The Witches of Lublin

By Camille Alexa, on February 26th, 2011

I’m delighted to tell you about a new Ellen Kushner project, a musical audio drama called The Witches of Lublin that is now in post-production. It will air on public radio stations nationwide as a Spring Holiday radio special in April for Passover.

Ellen, author of The Golden Dreydil and the beloved Riverside series, describes it as a “‘one-hour ‘klezmer/feminist/magic realist/shtetl musical audio drama,’ which I co-wrote with my klezmer musician/filmmaker friends Yale Strom and Elizabeth Schwartz, features original music by Yale (based on his researches on the lost Jewish life of Eastern Europe), and an all-star cast: Tovah Feldshuh (Yentl; Golda’s Balcony), Simon Jones (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Brideshead Revisited), Barbara Rosenblat (The Secret Garden; Anne Frank Remembered) and author Neil Gaiman (Coraline), among other amazing talent from the Broadway, Audiobook and Yiddish worlds.’

I was fortunate enough to read the script just recently and I can tell you that it it will an amazing production!

Not at all surprisingly, they could use your help. If you can contribute to helping underwrite the considerable expense of this project, please do so even if it’s just a small donation. And of course they’ll thank you online on their Donors Page. You can contribute by check or PayPal via their website.

Just as important is that you contact your local public radio station asking them to carry ‘The Witches of Lublin’ for Passover. It doesn’t matter if you are a member of your local public radio station or not; as long as you live in the area, they will welcome your suggestions for programming. The ‘Witches of Lublin’ website has a sample letter to send to your station, plus links to find your local station. Do it soon, please, as most stations program far in advance! And ask your friends to do the same. Thank you!

Their website is also where you’ll find a complete synopsis of the play, bios of the cast and creative team, a music sample, and more to come.